Volkswagen U.S. sales chief quits amid decline in deliveries

A senior U.S. sales manager has given up Volkswagen’s North America operations just as the automaker’s deliveries in the second-largest vehicle market fall.

Ron Stach, senior vice president of sales at Volkswagen of America, has quit the automaker, a representative for the automaker in the United States stated on Saturday, confirming a report by Automotive News.

He refused talk about the reason for Stach’s departure. A spokesperson at Volkswagen’s worldwide headquarters in Wolfsburg didn’t return calls looking for comment.

Stach, who joined VW’s North America operations in 2006 and formerly worked at Mazda Motor’s division in the region, couldn’t be reached for discussion.

The automaker stated recently that its U.S. sales increased 5.2 percent to 339,676 brand models in 2017 but plunged 19 percent in December after publishing their first monthly drop in 2017 in November.

The world’s biggest automaker by sales is eager to end losses in the United States by the end of the decade, depending on a series of higher-margin new models and structural changes as it continues to have a hard time with its diesel emissions scandal which broke in the United States in 2015.

Stach became vice president of sales in March 2016, the very same month that Michael Horn, the automaker’s then-CEO of North American operations, resigned.

Throughout the automaker’s initial response to the emissions scandal, Horn was the automaker’s public face in the United States, apologizing days after the scandal became public on September 18, 2015 and affirming before Congress.

Stach will be replaced by Derrick Hatami for now, who joined Volkswagen of America last June as executive vice president for sales and marketing, the automaker stated.